The games we play
by ruckes
Summary: Cancelled, might restart it. Was very disappointed at how poorly I wrote it, have a poll on my forum to decide next fan fiction I write.
1. The reaping

I sit patiently on an old log, our meeting spot just beyond the fence. _Maybe something held him up, maybe he doesn't want to go here on the day of the reaping, it was our first reaping after all..._ My train of thoughts are stopped as my best friend Lamar comes into my view as he crawls under the fence. And silently walks over to me before speaking quietly. "Want to go a bit in to get some blackberries?" Even though we're far away enough from anybody that even if we shouted no one would hear, or care for that matter, we still keep our voices down. Going beyond the fence is punishable by death, even if no one is ever prosecuted. "Ya, lets just grab some and leave, last thing we need is to be late for the reaping." He tersely nods towards me and we silently walk into the edges of the woods to the old berry patch we had found when we were eleven. Man, one year. For one year now we've gone into the meadow illegally. It seems like just yesterday we shakily crawled under the fence to play in the meadow, jumping back to the fence at the smallest sound. I tighten my grip on my knife. It's an old hunting knife I bought at the hob for a load of berries, it's not much, but it allows me to be able to get the occasional rabbit or squirrel. Lamar's voice snaps me back to reality, "Here," He points towards a particularly large bush of blackberries, "Only pick a handful or so, we still have some berries left over from last week that we can have for dinner." Neither of us mentions the fact that either one of us could very possibly be gone by dinner, to never return. Instead we just silently pick the tasty berries, and stuff them into our pockets. "Alright," I say after getting a couple handfuls of berries picked, "I'm gonna go home, see you later."

"See ya." After that we both walk our separate ways, crawling under the fence and start walking home. After a minute or two I arrive home. I creak the door open, and sneak in, the reaping is an hour away, but my parents might be sleeping. They don't get much sleep because of the long shifts they work, their trying to save up so we can someday open up some candy shop in town. Seems pretty far-fetched to me, but they have alot of money saved up, so who knows. I jump when I hear my mothers voice behind me, "Hey, reapings in an hour, you need to get ready." I give a grin and comically groan,

"C'mon, why do we have to get clean and dress up?"

"It's only polite."

I give a short chuckle, "Yes, because manners have to be your number one priority when being sent to the death."

She lets out an exasperated sigh,"Just take a bath, filthy boy," She chuckles, ruffling her hand threw my spiky hair. I begin walking to the bathroom and just as I'm about to enter she shouts out after me, "Your father went out to get some lace for your shoe, he'll meet us in the square."

"OK!" I shout out before entering the room. I walk slowly into the room and stare at the mirror, my jet black hair has dirt layered in it, so I begin by washing my hair, being careful not to wet it down, whenever I do that it always looks sort of curly, and weird looking, so I just keep my hair up. Next I run the bath and take a quick dip in it before drying myself and quickly getting dressed. My mom layed out a long black shirt and navy pants, and some black tennis shoes. Nothing too fancy, but still nice enough to be considered "dressy." Not that we could afford anything fancy, but I shouldn't complain, we eat better then most in the seam.

I step out of the bathroom to see a note sitting on a dresser, _Luke, I left to go to the town, make sure to get here as soon as possible, don't want to be late. _

_-Love and luck, Mom_

I set the note down and step look at the clock, better get going. I step out of the house and walk to the square, luckily it's not to far away, but I'm still one of the last to arrive. I walk to my section and spot out Lamar and walk over to him. We both nod at each other, and look up at the podium. The mayor steps out and gives his same boring speech he gives every year, and then it's time for the reaping. My heart starts beating at 500 miles per hour. I know it's silly, my names only in there once, compared to some of the 18 year olds who have there names in there 50 times or something ridiculous like that. But still I can't help but be terrified. Suddenly I snap into reality as the capitol women reads the first name in the silly capitol accent, "The female tribute is..." She gives a long pause as she unfolds the paper, "Sarah Adams." I hear a high pitched scream from somewhere and a girl I can't recognize steps out of the 16 year old section and shakily makes her way up to the stage. "Well, isn't that exciting!" She half screeches, as if a girl being sent to her death is actually exciting. _Typical capitol people._ "Now for the boys." My heart starts beating fast again, I keep telling myself it's not going to be me but it's not helping. Suddenly the women reaches her hand into the bowl and everything begins to slow down as she begins fishing for a slip of paper, _Is that slip mine that she just dropped? Did she just skim by mine? Is mine at the bottom of the ball, out of reach? _As she pulls out a slip of paper and reads the name I realize it's none of the above. The name she reads is Luke Garner.


	2. Meeting the mentor

It feels as if I've been hit by a truck, _Luke Garner. _It can't be me, can it? I'm probably just hearing things right? But no, everyone in my section is staring at me, one kid in particularly gives me a small shove, and I start slowly stuttering up, _This can't be happening, one slip, just one little slip and she had to pull mine. _The capitol lady gives a smile and says with way too much happiness, "Let's all give a big round of applause for this years tributes!" As always, no one claps, what's to be happy about? Suddenly the peacekeepers lead us away into the train station and throw me into a room. I sit there patiently for what seems like hours before my parents walk into the room teary eyed. My mom runs to me and gives me a death squeeze while sobbing into my shoulder. I feel the tears welling up in my eyes but hold them in. If people see I've been crying I'll have no sponsors, not that I'm going to have any either way. My eyes lock on with my father as he stands behind there, and his eyes say everything that hasn't been spoken, "You can do this, you just have to try, you can get them to like you, I believe in you." After a couple minutes a peacekeeper comes in and half drags my mom out while she says something I can't understand in between sobs. The next visitor isn't any surprise, Lamar. He silently walks in and sits down next to me, then begins speaking fast, "You can do this Luke, your good with a knife, and your smart enough to know the survival skills. You know what berries are poisonous and you can hunt, all you have to do is survive long enough..." Before he can continue I cut him off

"And then what? I can't fight anyone, and even if I could I can't kill someone."

"You have to Luke, it's in self defense, it doesn't make you a bad person it's just..."

I cut him off again, "Well where do you draw the line? When does self defense become murder?"

"You can't worry about morals in the arena, you do what you have to to survive."

At that we both fall silent, he's right of course, no one with morals ever wins the games. But I don't want to become one of those tributes who turns into a complete monster when they go in the arena. I wont become like them, I will kill for self defense, when completely needed, not that I'll ever be able to kill someone if I tried anyways.

After a couple minutes just sitting in silence the peacekeepers come in and take me on to the train, where I'll meet my mentor and fellow tribute.

Right when I walk into the room my mouth drops open in awe, It's amazing, and I'm completely awed by it. But then that awe turns into anger, if they have all this for just a day or two travel, why can't they help us districts, give us some food or just something. But no, of course they wouldn't, this is the capitol. They send kids to their death for their amusement, why would they let us live in luxury. The girl, I think her name is Abby, seems to be thinking the same thing, as her brows are downward in rage. I hear the thick capitol accent behind me, which I now know is my escorts, "Isn't this extravagant, I think it's so great that you get to experience all this, if only for just a little while."

"Ya, it's great we get to live all fanciful before we die isn't it?" I'm shocked to see that the speaker of the voice is the quiet female tribute from my district.

The mentor's smile fades and she purses her lips, "Manners." It takes every ounce of self control I own to not shout at her about how their sending us to our death, and that isn't exactly great "manners".

"I see you guys are off to a good start." I look over to see the voice is from Lee Henders, Victor of the 95th hunger games, and our mentor. Everyone in the room falls silent as he walks over smoothly, and pauses right before us, and begins to seemingly scan us. After about 3 minutes he finally backs away, "Well, look what I got this year, a little 12 year old with no muscle and a 16 year old with probably even less." He states matter-of-factly, then cuts us off before we can protest, "Now listen, do either of you have any skills with anything. Weaponry, speed, smarts, anything that might be useful in the arena?" After a 30 second pause I speak first

"I'm pretty good with a knife."

He glares at me, looking almost surprised, "How good?"

I return his glare right back and respond, "I'm pretty handy with handling it, and I have some decent aim when throwing."

"Good, your going to have to use ranged weapons, since anyone can easily beat you in hand to hand combat, So throwing knifes are good, I would suggest trying out a bow too." Then he turns his attention to the girl, "And you?"

She suddenly snaps out, "No, nothing, I'm dead and I know it, just leave me alone and let me die!" With that she storms off into a room and slams the door shut.

I turn away surprised, but find Lee doesn't seem surprised at all and I swear I hear him mutter, "Typical." Then he turns back to me, "Alright you can go off to your room, just be here for dinner, we'll talk some strategy." And with that he's off, and I'm left alone in the middle of the room.

**Alright third chapter should be up tomorrow, make sure to review, I really want to hear what you guys think.**


	3. The other Tributes

I sit silently in the middle of the room for a couple minutes before finally walking over to the TV and flipping it on. _Might as well scout out the competition. _The reapings recap begins and I start taking notes on the most notable tributes.

_District 1_

_Boy-Tall, well built, 16 years old, Spiky Jet Black hair-Career-_

_Girl-Medium size, 18, long brown hair-Career_

_District 2_

_Boy-Gigantic, 18 years old, Dark brown buzz cut-Career-Extremely Dangerous_

_Girl-Small, 16 years old, long blonde hair-Career-Most likely uses ranged weapons_

_District 4_

_Boy-Tall, well built, 15 years old, long blonde hair-Career_

_Girl-Medium size, 17 years old, dark brown hair in ponytail-Career_

_District 7_

_Boy-Medium sized, well built, 16 years old, short, Dark brown hair, most likely some training with axes_

_District 11_

_Boy-Huge, extremely strong, 18 years old, Dark skinned, short black hair, __**Volunteered,**_ will_ be dangerous_

After that I set my notepad down, pretty interesting year, I'm not the only 12 year old, there's also a boy from 3, and a girl from 5, but they weren't notable enough to write down, this list is for the major dangers. I'm still surprised someone from 18 volunteered, it wasn't even for family. After that I walk into my room and step into the bathroom, and take a look at the mirror. _Looking pretty crappy, better take a shower. _I step into the weird contraption and look at the shower in awe. There's so many buttons, how do you know which ones to press? After 3 minutes of trying to find out what does what I just randomly push a button and step into the shower. I get lucky and it just lets out some lukewarm water and some light shampoo for my hair, before I'm blindsided by a gust of air that nearly knocks me over. I step out of the shower and decide to look at my clothes, after digging around for a couple minutes through the endless supply of way to bright colored clothing, I finally find a plain black T-shirt and pants that fits me. I leave my room and decide to go head to the dining table, probably dinner by now. I get there to see that Lee and my escort are both there, but Abby is nowhere to be found. I walk over and sit down and break the silence, "So..where's Abby?" Lee glares at me for a moment before calmly answering,

"She's refusing to leave her room, something along the lines of 'I'm dead anyways now leave me alone." No one speaks after that, and we just all go to eating our meal. I'm shocked by the sheer amount of food that's before just us 4, or well 3 I guess, and also by how amazing it is. I decide to have some chicken broth, and something called lamb stew. They both taste absolutely delicious, but I resist the urge to get anymore, and instead decide to try some rolls with a creamy cheese on them which tastes better then anything I've ever eaten, not that that's saying much. After that I have something called hot chocolate to drink, which is good, but it nearly burns my tongue when I have it. I'm tempted to try some more, but I decide anything more I eat will come up later, not that this will probably stay down anyway. I lean back and am thinking about just going to my room to sleep when Lee speaks up, "Did you watch the reaping?" I nod slightly, and he continues, "Good, you'll have to look out for the careers for sure, they look strong this year, especially 1 and 2, the boys from 7 and 11 aren't to be messed with either though." I give another nod, I figured that out myself. "You're going to need to find allies, I would suggest looking for people that have a combination of skill and trustworthiness. So I would suggest against the careers, the boy from 3, girl from 5, boy from 11, and anyone else who doesn't fit one of those categories." I don't do anything after this, I had been planning on allying with 3 and 5, but he does have a point about them probably being worthless in combat, then again, I'm not worth much either. After that I slowly get up and walk towards my room, I'm going to fight to the death in a couple days, might as well get some rest.

I open my door and softly shut it, before walking into the bathroom. I stagger over to the toilet before my dinner finally comes up, guess that was too much. I sit like that, losing the best dinner of my life, for about half an hour before I finally feel better. I go to the sink and get a cup of water and rinse all the nasty stuff out of my mouth, and then brush my teeth to get rid of it further. I change out of clothes and just toss them on the floor before grabbing some pajamas and put them on before slipping into bed. Sleep is restless though, how could I sleep when I know in a couple days I'll be dead? After what feels lie a couple hours, fatigue finally gets the best of me, and I slip into deep sleep.


	4. It's going to be a big, big day

I wake up to a pounding at my door interrupted by the high pitched voice that can only be my mentor. "Get up, get up, it's going to be a big, big day!" _Does she have to say everything twice? _I quickly shake the thought and go over to get dressed, and decide against a shower, and instead just dip my hair in the sink and leave the room not bothering to dry it. When I get out, to my surprise, Abby is sitting at the dining table sipping on hot chocolate and nibbling on her roll. I pull out a chair and sit down, deciding after what happened last night to follow Abby in suite. After a couple of minutes Lee interrupts our silent eating,

"Ok, we're going to be in the capitol soon, you're going to hate what your prep team does to you, but don't resist." He pauses, seemingly expecting us to protest. "After that is the tribute parade, try to make them remember you." Then, as if on queue, our train leaves the tunnel and enters into the shiny capitol. I quickly run over to the window to get a better look.

"It's amazing..." Suddenly the view of the capitol is lost and a crowd of cheering capitol citizens comes into view. I can't help but have a silly grin on my face at just how ridiculous these people look. They have their skin dyed, makeup all over their faces, and I swear I see someone with a tail. I start waving at everyone hoping that they'll see this and decide to sponsor me. _Yup, because who doesn't want to sponsor a tiny 12 year old from district 12. They must need to have a line for me..._

Over the next 3 hours my prep team rip off every ounce of the little body and facial hair I had, put some sort of liquid on my face to prevent me from growing a beard(as if), and bathe me in a tub that's more chemicals than water. Then finally, my prep team leaves and my stylist enters the room. She walks over and begins inspecting my body, which makes me blush slightly, it's weird kinda. After inspecting me she finally speaks up, "Ok, I think I know what to do with you," She gestures with her hand, "Walk with me." I quickly slip on my robe and follow her silently. We enter a room were she presses a button and suddenly a table of food pops up in front of us. I sit down quietly and zone out as she talks about my outfit and some other stuff. I finally snap back into attention to see my stylist staring expectantly at me, "I'm sorry, what?"

She takes a long look at me, as if pondering if I listened to a word she said(which I didn't)before finally she just lets out an exasperated sigh.

A couple hours later me and Abby are sitting in our chariot in a pen of sorts for the tributes about to go out. The two of us are dressed in matching outfits. We both wear the same black Shirt and pants, layered in Diamonds(no need to mention that diamonds don't come from coal). We both look better then district 12 normally looks, but still nothing that would take away attention from the careers. The gate opens and district 1, the normal favorites step out in some sort of jewelry get-up that gets the crowd going crazy. We sit patiently as the chariots go by until finally it's our turn to go out. _This is it, better make them like you Luke..._ I snap back as the Coal black horses lead us into the blinding light of the city. I quickly glance around to see that most of the crowd has turned their attention away from district 10 and 11, and instead are focusing on us. I hear some cheers for us, but it's nothing like the careers got. I wave at the crowd and try my best to make them like me, but Abby isn't helping me, as she's just staring strait ahead, completely ignoring everyone, as if their all below her. I ignore her and just try my best to make due, but once we reach the city square, everyone seems to have turned their attention back to the careers, particularly district 1. As we enter the training center we will be staying the next few days, the doors close behind us, trapping us in.

We are immediately greeted by Lee, our stylists, and the prep team, who are all congratulating us and the stylists. They deserve it, this is the biggest splash that district 12 has made since I think it was the 74th, and they set our tributes on fire. After some small talk we all get in the elevator and head to our new living place. Our escort(I have to learn everyone's names) blabbers on about how we get the penthouse, and food, and chandeliers. When we reach our floor I can't help but gasp, it's amazing. It makes that train that was like heaven compared to my house, look like, well, my house. After a couple of minutes of just taking everything in, we decide to eat dinner. This time I just have some broth and rolls with a bit of cheese on them, before silently heading off to bed, we can talk strategy tomorrow. Tomorrow. It's somewhat intimidating that tomorrow I will have my first day of training. 3 Days to practice weapons, make allies, learn survival skills, and make an impression. It's a daunting task but I'm up to it. I've decided to go against what Lee said on the first day on the train, I'm going to make allies with the boy from 3 and girl from 5. They may be 12 years old, weak, and practically worthless, but hey, aren't I too? And with that thought, I go to sleep.


	5. Allies

**_Riiing, Riiing, Riiing!_**

I shoot up upon hearing the foreign sound, panicked, before I notice where it's coming from. A little clock is making the sound, so I hit the different buttons on it until the annoying ringing sound finally stops. I make a mental note to turn it off before I go to sleep tonight. I take a look at the clock and am relieved when it reads, 8:45. I walk into the bathroom and step into the shower, and push a random button, hoping I get lucky again. I don't. Lukewarm water comes spraying down for a couple minutes until i'm doused with a layer of green foam that i have to wipe off with a towel for a couple minutes. I rinse my hair in the sink and walk back into my room, getting dressed in the standard tribute clothes layed out for me. I quickly slip them on and go over to the table for breakfast. By the time I get there I see that Abby and Lee are already eating. I place a bit of something called oatmeal on my plate, and grab some milk to go along with it. The strange looking goop is surprisingly tasty, and I resist the temptation to get seconds, and instead chug my milk and begin talking with Lee. "So...what should I do during training." He looks up from his plate, seemingly surprised I spoke up. He puts down his spoon and begins talking fast.

"Try out the survival stations, your best chance of winning is just avoiding others and survive as long as possible. Also try out the bow, but avoid knifes, you want to hide your skill from the others. Finally, try to make some allies, preferably someone who has a similar strategy of hiding out, but is bigger and can do hand to hand combat, since you can't. Last thing, I need to know if the two of you want to be trained separately."

I look at him confused, why would we want to be trained separately? Before I can speak up, Abby quickly speaks instead. "As if, there's no way your training me."

Lee glares at her, "Listen you may not like me but if you want to stand a chance..."

Abby cuts him off before he can continue, "I stand no chance!" She bursts out, "None! I already know it, so just shut up and leave me alone!" She storms off into the elevator and slams the button closing door. Me and Lee just stare at each other, surprised at the outburst, she's normally quiet. Lee breaks the silence,

"Well then...I guess you should head downstairs, don't want to be late. Remember what I said."

I nod at him and walk into the elevator, pressing the button for the training room. I get to the bottom floor to notice that I'm the last one here. I sit down on the floor in the back near no one else. Then some lady comes in and tells about the rules and other stuff like that before sending us off. I decide to walk over to the bow and arrow station first and after learning the basics from the trainer, start shooting. I'm decent, I hit the middle ring mostly, but a few times a hit the center ring, and I even hit the bullseye once.

After the bow and arrow station, I manage to get a small fire, and impress the snare station with my knowledge of traps. At lunch I decide it's a better time then any to make allies, and I walk over to the girl my age from 12. I set my lunch tray containing mac and cheese, and some milk, next to hers and sit down. We sit in silence eating for a couple minutes before I speak up, "So, I saw you at the knife throwing station, you did pretty good."

She looks up at me from her food and takes a minute before responding, "Thanks, I saw you do pretty good yourself at the bow station." A give her a slight smile, and she mirrors it as well.

"Allies?" I ask.

She gives a smug grin back, "Sure."

After lunch we both head to the berries station, where I show her some edible berries, and then, to my surprise, she takes me to the bow station and gives me some pointers, and when she shoots, she hits the center ring every time, getting a good amount of bullseyes too. "Where did you learn to shoot like that?" I ask her, stifling a chuckle.

She gives a sly smile before returning back, "Same place you learned what berries are poisonous." We both let out a laugh, ignoring the looks we get from the other tributes. From then on we are a team. The next 2 days we stick together, she teaches me about how to use a bow and set fires, and I show her edible berries, how to make a snare, and, although against what Lee told me to do, how to throw knives. While I'm showing her how to hold a knife a thought suddenly pops in my head.

"You know, I never learned your name."

She gives a short laugh, before extending her hand, "Lizzy Malvina."

I grab her hand and shake it while grinning ear to ear, "Luke Garner."

While she practices throwing knives with the new technique I taught her, I can't help think, _Lizzy, that's a beautiful name, it's..._I'm taken aback when I realize the last word that I can't shake, _fitting..._


	6. Private Sessions

I pick up the smallest spear I can find and focus on my target. A dummy hung by a rope quite a few yards away, with a spear already impaling it's right kneecap. I breath in deeply and get a small head start before chucking my spear as hard as I can at the dummy. To my dismay it only manages to stick into it's foot, and even then barely. I turn back, defeated, to see Lizzy smiling ear to ear. "Told you I could beat you in spear throwing."

I chuckle slightly before quipping, "Well I won in axe throwing, so I guess that means a tie." I smile triumphantly, happy with a tie in our training competition. I won in edible plants, snares, knife throwing, and axes. She won in Fire starting, bow target shooting, spear throwing, and much to my dismay, weights. We decided to do the competition to decide who gets to pick what stations we would go to, kind of ironic.

In return she just gives me a smug smile, "There's still one more station we can do." I follow her gaze to see her staring at the running station.

I return a smirk and reply, "We both go separately, better time wins."

"Deal." She runs off to the station, and I walk slowly behind, preserving my energy that I wasted trying to beat Lizzy's weirdly high amount of weight she could lift. By the time I get there, she is already set at the start line, with the trainer standing by, stopwatch in hand.

He asks if she's ready, and in response she just gives a slight nod of her head. "Ok, 3, 2, 1,, Go!" She darts off, racing to the end of the track, before making a U-turn and heading back at the same breathtakingly fast speed. She reaches the finish line and the teacher gives her a proud glare before reading the time, "16.4 seconds, that's top 10 percentile, excellent job!" My heart drops at that news, great not only can she lift more then me, she can also run probably twice as fast as I can.

Realizing this Lizzy gives a sly grin at me, "Your turn hot-shot." I roll my eyes and put myself in a ready position.

I give the trainer a nod and he begins the countdown, "3, 2, 1, Go!" I dash off as fast as my legs can carry me, nearly tripping myself when I do the sharp turn. I see the home stretch, and pump my legs even faster, willing my tiny body to move faster. I dash in and slow my self down once I reach the finish line, turning around to see my time. The trainer gives me the same proud look she gave Lizzy before reading, "17.1 seconds! Top 10 percentile, great job!" I slap my hand to my face, and I hear Lizzy roaring with laughter, 0.7 seconds. If I didn't trip on that turn...I let out a sigh. I lower my head and follow the triumphant Lizzy to the camouflage station and wherever else she wants to lead me for the rest of the day.

After 2 hours of following her to whatever station she pleased, it's finally time for lunch, and more importantly, our private sessions. I'm sitting next to Lizzy, nibbling on a cheese filled roll while waiting for our names to be called. Since I'm district 12, I'll be second last, behind only Abby, that is if just sitting there doing nothing like Abby will probably do can be considered a session. I wouldn't be surprised if she got a 0, not like she's done, can, or will do anything. After about an hour and a half Lizzy is finally called in. As she gets up to leave, I call after her, "Good luck!"

She turns back and grins, "You too." I sit at that same seat for the next couple hours, before my name is finally called. I nervously walk in, I still have no idea what I'm doing today. To my dismay, when I walk in, none of the gamemakers are paying attention. I walk up towards them, and cough, "Luke Garner, District 12." This seems to snap some of the gamemakers into attention, but most of them are still too focused on their food, drunk, or both. I decide to make the best of it though, and a plan for what I will do pops into my head. I pick up 4 knives, sliding two of them securely into my belt, and clutching the other two in my hands. I make my way over to the track me and Lizzy had our race earlier and begin dashing at full speed, slowing down momentarily at the U-Turn to throw the 2 knives in my hand at the axe station, one hitting the bullseye and the other hitting the edge of the middle and inner circle. I quickly return to full speed, taking the knives out of my belt and again slowing down a bit to throw at the dummy, my first knife hits just above the heart, the other slipping out of my hand and hitting the lower stomach. I ignore the bad throw and take off, running towards the bow station just beyond the track, quickly pick up and load the bow, and shoot 2 arrows in quick succession. Both manage to just barely get the inner circle, better then I expected. I turn around and see that I've gained a bit more attention from the gamemakers.

One of the gamemakers speaks, "You may go now." I give a slight nod, set down the bow and head towards the elevator, I did way better then I expected too. I exit the elevator to see Bella, I found out my escorts name yesterday, and Lee. They both look at me expectantly before Lee speaks up.

"So, how did you do?"

I give a grin, "Better then expected."

Lee lets out a sigh of relief, "Alright, good. Most kids choke, I guess we'll see how good you did when you get your training score I guess. What did you do."

I give a shrug, "I ran around and threw some knives, then shot a bow. I think I'll probably get a 5."

Lee gives a slight nod, "Alright well I guess we can eat dinner while we wait for the training scores to come." We all walk over to the table, and I dig in right away, not bothering to wait for Abby, she wont eat with us anyways. I decide to have some of the lamb stew, although not too much, and sip on some chicken broth. After a couple minutes Abby comes up and walks strait to her room, not even acknowledging us. After I finish eating we all go over to the TV where the scores are just coming in, beginning with district 1. The careers score high as they always do, with the exception of the girl from 4 who gets a 7. Usually careers get at least an 8, and the two from 1 this year both got 10's. My train of thoughts is stopped when Lizzy's face comes up. I don't even have time to wish her luck before a 7 comes on the screen. I let out a sigh, she did good, heck, I would even say great. Usually 12 year olds get somewhere around 2. I sighed a bit too loud apparently, because when I look over Lee and Bella are both staring at me. I feel my cheeks blush and quickly look away. We sit in silence for the rest of the scores, no surprises really. Finally district 12 is up and my face comes on the screen. The room tenses up, and it seems like hours before the score finally comes up.

"Luke Garner," Ceaser Flickerman, in his last year, begins. "with a score of...seven."


End file.
